No matter what happens to Carmelo Anthony at the trading deadline, Knicks owner James Dolan said he thinks the star he pined for in 2011 will leave New York with a positive legacy. Dolan won’t say if he agrees with president Phil Jackson’s assessment the Knicks should trade Anthony by Feb. 23, but he still…

Knicks fans weren’t the only ones in a foul mood Friday night, Kristaps Porzingis, so beaten down by this losing season, lost the joy of playing the sport he loves, for one evening at least. “I wasn’t enjoying basketball today — I wasn’t,” he said after the Knicks fell to the Nuggets, 131-123, at the…

All around Madison Square Garden, at sports bars and outside the main entrance on Seventh Avenue, Knicks fans had the same response to the Charles Oakley saga: The organization isn’t just turning its back on a longtime great with a ban in the wake of the ugly scene Wednesday night, when Oakley was escorted out…

Knicks owner James Dolan should next ban the team’s underachieving 15-man roster, which has yet to learn to play the kind of defense the Garden once was known for. Coach Jeff Hornacek was as livid Friday as Charles Oakley was Wednesday night, saying the Knicks should be “embarrassed” after the pitiful Nuggets lit up the…

Charles Oakley is giving the fans what they want. The Knicks legend, who on Friday was banned from Madison Square Garden after being ejected and arrested Wednesday following an altercation with security guards, thanked the fans for their support and said he is not done pleading his case. Oakley announced Friday night via Twitter he will…

New York’s latest and hottest rivalry reached about 1,000 degrees Friday. Charles Oakley’s camp fired back at James Dolan after the Knicks owner banned him from Madison Square Garden, saying he was “physically and verbally abusive,” and alleging a possible drinking problem. Oakley spokesman Akhtar Farzaie told The Post: “[It’s] a failed attempt by James…

Knicks owner James Dolan gave an emphatic endorsement of Phil Jackson, saying he plans to keep the embattled team president for the full five years of his contract, is staying out of his way and still thinks he has time to turn it around. None of it is good news for Carmelo Anthony, who is…

Charles Oakley was an absolute terror on the court in his 10 years as a bruising Knicks enforcer. No opponent ever seemed to find a way to handle him on the glass and keep him under control. At least until now. In the wake of the Wednesday incident that led to Oakley’s forcible ejection from…

Madison Square Garden released a series of statements Friday from employees who came into contact with Charles Oakley on Wednesday night before the Knicks legend’s angry confrontation with security and forcible ejection from the arena. Security guards in the Garden’s employ say Oakley lashed out at them as “henchmen” of Knicks owner James Dolan and accused…

The Knicks provided little resistance on the defensive end Friday night, allowing at least 30 points in every quarter of a 131-123 loss to Denver before a vocally unhappy sellout crowd of 19,812 at the Garden.

Charles Oakley has been banned from Madison Square Garden in the aftermath of his physical altercation with security officers during the first quarter of Wednesday night’s Knicks game, team owner James Dolan said Friday on “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN Radio.

Knicks owner James Dolan says team president Phil Jackson has his full support, that he won’t interfere if Jackson wants to trade Carmelo Anthony and that he will honor the full five years of Jackson’s agreement.

NBA stars present and past have weighed in since Wednesday night about the incident at Madison Square Garden that led to the ejection and arrest of former Knick Charles Oakley — most of them siding with Oakley.

You know, the Melo defense by some here is bordering on ridiculous.
The Knicks are 11 games below .500.
They gave up 131 points to a team with three starters down.

Videos of Melo’s defensive incompetence are everywhere.
His iso tendencies, while entertaining, are not making the Knicks better.
Melo is earning $24.5 million this year, roughly one out of every four salary dollars under the cap.

He is the leader. His example is this team’s standard. If he is careless on D, the team will be careless.

I don’t go out of my way to criticize Melo. I think he is a wonderful scorer.
But he scored 33 and posted a -13 last night (who does that?) and still people defend him.
He is this team’s leader and this team is terrible. Their bench plays harder.
Rose is a rental. Overpaid and also horrible on D.
But this is Melo’s team and his team just stinks, and Melo’s defensive play sucks.
With that salary, with the label leader, he is more responsible for this mess than any other player. To separate him from the past two years is ridiculous.

The Knicks are a half game out of 7th place in the draft. 7th place guarantees us a shot at a top 4 PG and hopefully Jonathan Isaac. We are 2 games out of 4th place which guarantees us a shot at Isaac and Dennis Smith Jr. I honestly don’t want us to pick too high because Phil will pass on Isaac and take an inferior prospect because need. The only two players in the draft we should be picking over Isaac are Ball and Fultz.

If the Knicks do pull off a Melo trade with Cleveland, hopefully we do it with a team who would move their lottery pick this year for Love. I’d like to see us grab Fox/Ball and Isaac.

2. We’re really 9th on that list after Sacramento won its 22nd game last night against Atlanta.

3. Robert Williams is skyrocketing up the NBA mock draft list into 6th overall (Pelicans).

4. I wouldn’t worry about Phil picking a guard over Isaac. A consensus is quickly forming that there’s a top three of Fultz, Ball and Isaac above everyone else. We’ll need to pick in the top 3 to at least get one.

Well, the good news about this Knicks mess is we’re getting way more press coverage. The venerable NY Times had no less than 3 articles about our beloved franchise today, including a front page story about the Oakley-Dolan feud.

I am down with trading Lee and O’Quinn but I have a feeling they, along with Jennings, will play an important part in a package deal to move Melo either to Cleveland or Los Angeles.

On that note, I found it interesting the Cavaliers picked up Derek Williams. He was someone we were looking at. I wonder if he’s someone who Griffin believes can be packaged as part of a Melo-Love deal.

Cousins with the .484 TS% on 23 tSA with 9 turnovers. Woof. That dude is going to Melo some poor franchise someday when he finally gets traded for 8 future firsts and half a team’s active roster.

With our luck it will be us. I saw that the Kings beat Boston without him and wondered if he’s what’s holding them back. Those numbers confirm my suspicion. Typical case of a million dollar talent in a 5 cent brain.

Hornacek and the coaching staff deserve some of the blame for why we can’t defend a basic pick and roll across the team. Some of it is laziness and ineptitude – like when Rose fell asleep on a quick inbound from Jokic to the guard to a wide open court – but some of it is a lack of defensive IQ from people on this team. That’s on the staff.

I think Philly can definitely pass us. They’re on pace with us the last 10 games without playing Embiid. Now that Simmons returns after the AS, they should be much improved. Lakers have played better as of late now that they’re going with the youngsters like we should be doing. Orlando looks like a lost cause out there. They are going to be hard to beat out, which is bad since I think they take the local Flordia product in Isaac if they have the chance.

We need the Lakers to be a top 3 team. I don’t want the Sixers with 2 top 10 picks in this draft.

If so, they need to be a top 3 team after us. I don’t want those fuckers getting Ball. They don’t deserve him and I know Magic Johnson was salivating at the thought of drafting him after watching that UCLA-Oregon game.

And yeah I was quite surprised that Horny went back to his starters so quickly when the 2nd unit had given us the lead. He had I believe Baker, Jennings, Holiday, KP and Willy out there and they were doing damage. Is Horny the stealth tank commander?

It’s funny that both future Knick Cousins, and Jokic, are mentioned in this thread. I guarantee that Dolan had no idea who Jokic was before last night, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Phil and melo didn’t either. But everyone knows that Cousins is a ruff rider who scores many points on crappy teams, so it’s destiny that a Rose/KP/Hernangomez/#1 for Cousins/Collison deal happens. And it’s destiny that some people on here will applaud the new line-up.

Before everyone goes gaga for Jokic, remember that he allows the 2nd-highest FG% of any starting center in the league (Zaza is worst). The Knicks scored 120+ points in this game. Denver has the worst DRtg in the league, allowing 1.6 more points per 100 possessions than the Knicks.

Center is the most important defensive position in the league. You’ll never be that good if your 35 mpg star center is a defensive sieve.

I’m confused as to why the Nuggets give up 0.96 PPP with him on the floor and 0.93 with him off. That’s a not-insignificant difference, but they either have more defensive sieves backing him up or their defense is simply terrible on its own.

He also is either best on his team or close to it in DWS, DBPM, and DRtg. He might be bad at defense overall, but it seems Mudiay, Nelson, Gallo and Murray are the real weak points on that squad.

I just watched the game on replay. Jokic is very good, but I still wouldn’t trade KP for him. The numbers are currently in Jokic’s favor, but some of that is due to his body being more NBA-ready right now. KP needs to develop physically before passing judgment on him. Now, Jokic could develop too (and Towns and Turner for that matter) but I wouldn’t give up on KP’s ceiling just yet. But I certainly could see the logic in making the trade on the basis of current performance, and there’s no doubt that Jokic is the better player right now.

I would also say that the D played on Jokic was putrid. There was one play, for example, where WHG had position on Jokic but never even made an attempt to box him out. Jokic just nudged WHG under the basket and made the easy follow tap.

There were also several times where KP was ignored even though he was wide open at the 3. The level of selfishness and dysfunction on the Knicks is so palpable, it has to be affecting KP.

field goal percentage allowed isn’t a great metric on its own–it’s really noisy. That being said, Jokic is clearly an awful rim protector. It doesn’t matter though because he’s a top 5 offensive player.

It’s a lot more likely that Jokic turns into a competent defender than it is that Porzingis ever reaches Jokic’s current (age 21) level of offensive production. I would gladly make that trade. Denver never would though, and I’m very happy to have Porzingis.

I watched a few of the college kids and didn’t really see any needle movers. Maybe Josh Jackson. Dennis Smith is meh. Monk has talent…reminds me of Derozan a little bit but a volume shooter. Fox can do it all except shoot and score. He’s a terrible shooter. I didn’t see Duke today but Kennard had 22 points. No one else was in double figures for them. Who is the savior for us from this college class? Maybe Ball (obviously), Isaac or Ntilikina?

Idea for all you bored, retired Knickerblogger attorneys. Especially those who have owned some MSG stock for at least a year. Someone should file a 14a-8 proxy proposal recommending for the 2017 annual meeting that MSG sell the New York Knicks. True, it cannot win since the Dolans have 70% control via super-voting stock. But it would get a lot of press and attract a lot of attention to the supporting materials, which can include a vivid chronology of why James Dolan has been uniquely bad at managing the asset, and how it would be worth more in the hands of someone…anyone… else. Basically, a succinct history of this blog. It can even argue that a sale would likewise create a public welfare benefit for all the hard working Knick fans of the world. He did just go on the radio and repeatedly admit he has no basketball skills and can’t even reliably evaluate the person he chose to run the team.

What’s more, if this proposal evaded exclusion from the proxy, it would probably do well in the shareholder vote, since MSG’s stock price generally doesn’t discount the full trophy-sale value of the Knicks; maybe it would even win a majority of Class A (economic holders) votes, which is a loud if ultimately inert statement. Admittedly, this is kind of a big commitment for an angle that isn’t going to produce anything more tangible than a good public shaming, but some shamings are more rewarding than others.

I’d be ecstatic with Ball, Fultz, and Isaac, very happy with Jackson and Smith Jr., satisfied with Fox and Ntilikina (total wild card, mixed record on those guys), and a bit bummed with Tatum, Monk, and Markkanen.

Phil Jackson was the one guy who had enough gravitas to get James Dolan to actually step aside for awhile. The fact that Phil turned out to be a shitty GM just makes it feel like this team is doomed to eternal mediocrity now. I can’t imagine anybody else will get a shot at really running the team like a proper NBA team after this fiasco.

BTW, if true, this “tear” highlights why I’d waaaay rather have KP than Embiid. The fact this guy’s had major foot problems for two seasons and can’t play this year because of his knee issues does not bode well for his future.

So it sounds like Isaac, Monk, Dennis Johnson, Fox, Tatum, Giles, Bridges are all suspect in one way or another. Nitilikina is an unknown too. It might be that only Ball, Fultz and Jackson are sure things. Do I have that right?

Lots of good news tonight.
Bucks beat the Pacers. They now have more wins than we do.
76ers looking to beat the Heat despite trying to tank the game.
Mavericks are smacking down the Magic. Though it would be nice if the Magic won that game.

@Pythag. Jokic does have great numbers and may be a future MVP. He is also Phil”s first mistake: in 2014 he selected Clean thong at 34 (for his “pep”) and Jokic was taken at 41. Btw, spell check always gets it wrong but sometimes hilariously, so I didn’t correct. Imagine KP andJokic together.

After watching some of the attainable guards today I’m wondering if possibly Nitilikina is our best opportunity to fix our PG situation. If he goes between 6th and 10th we have a good chance at drafting him.

Yes, we’re now 8th worse record in the league. This is the Ntilikina/Fox territory we’ve talked about for weeks. I think we can keep this position fairly easily if we keep the team as is. The trick is to tank further down to a place within the Futile Five.

The problem is that the Knicks have a big 3 in KP, Melo, and D Rose that can each have an outstanding game at any given moment AND they have a bunch of useful players like Courtney Lee, Brandon Jennings, Willy Hernangomez, and Kyle O’Quinn that could end up playing a lot of minutes and lead to more wins. The solution? Trade Lee, O’Quinn, and Jennings to a team looking to contend for expiring contracts and maybe their 2017/2018 pick. That’ll put th tank in overdrive.

I don’t care if we trade Melo because chances are we won’t get anything useful, but Courtney Lee has to get out of town. He’s still good at basketball and by the time we could use a Courtney Lee he will no longer be good at basketball. If we have to attach other useful players to get rid of him then so be it. I’m all about this tank right now. Lee, O’Quinn, and Kuz to OKC doesn’t sound half bad for either team.

Melo and D-Rose are the ones who are accelerating our tank the fastest. Those two couldn’t defend their ways out of a paper bag. Its why I am so hesitant to trade either man, especially Rose. I’d rather keep Rose if it means just getting a 2nd round pick because the value of keeping him around might mean a few spots in our lottery order come draft night.

I don’t care if we trade Melo because chances are we won’t get anything useful, but Courtney Lee has to get out of town. He’s still good at basketball and by the time we could use a Courtney Lee he will no longer be good at basketball.

It’s such a Knicks thing to do to hold on to a guy until he has no value left, so yeah, I’d absolutely love for them to deal Lee when they can actually get something for him.